This invention relates to graphical user interfaces for electronic displays, and more particularly, to a system and method for hiding and displaying graphical objects on a computer display, television monitor, or similar display screen for an electronic device.
Graphical user interfaces for information handling systems such as computers, as well as advanced televisions, and other devices with screen displays allow users to accomplish desired tasks more easily. In the case of computers, for example, textbased interfaces and operating systems typically require the user to remember the filename and path of an application program or command in order to execute it. In contrast, in graphical interfaces and operating systems, the user generally need only activate a graphical object, such as an xe2x80x9cicon,xe2x80x9d menu item, or text label. The graphical object represents the application or command, and selecting the graphical object executes the application or command.
Similarly, in other devices with screen displays, graphical user interfaces may reduce or eliminate entirely the need for a keyboard or keypad. Again, in such devices, the user generally activates the desired program or enters the desired command by appropriately positioning a cursor or other pointing device over the graphical object.
Graphical objects may be arranged in physical sets, arrays, or functional groupings on the device display. Such groupings are referred to as xe2x80x9ctoolbars,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9ctask bars,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9ccontrol bars,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9con-screen menus,xe2x80x9d and the like. Whether the display screen is part of a television, computer, photocopier, manufacturing apparatus, or consumer electronic device, the graphical objects associated with commands or procedures generally appear on the display screen along with another xe2x80x9cactivexe2x80x9d area associated with the device. Graphical user interfaces of the current art generally display graphical objects as overlays on the work area of the display screen, that is, the graphical objects mask underlying portions of the work area, reducing the amount of information from the work area which can be viewed on the screen without scrolling. Otherwise stated, the display of toolbars is accomplished by the current art by reducing the amount of data visible in the work area of the display screen.
In advanced televisions, for example, a command menu or other information may be displayed at one side, overlaid on, and impinging upon, the main program being watched. In many computer software applications, arrays of graphical objects are overlaid on a main work area, often being arranged around the perimeter of the display screen.
A user""s need to select graphical objects often depends on the data or image being displayed in the remaining work area of the display screen. As such, it is often necessary or desirable for the data or image associated with a desired command to be visible in the display screen""s work area when the graphical object corresponding to the desired command is selected. Unfortunately, when one or more tool bars have been overlaid on the data screen, there is an increased likelihood that the desired data or the desired portion of the image has been covered up by the overlying toolbar(s).
This problem is rendered more acute as microchip performance increases. Increased microchip performance increases the likelihood of software programmers increasing the number of available commands or other menu items of applications or devices, and there is thus a corresponding need to make such commands available to the user in the form of graphical objects. The desire to keep such commands or items readily available for operating efficiency often results in the simultaneous display of multiple, adjacent toolbars, further diminishing the available area for display of data, and increasing the likelihood that the data which the user needs to see will be masked by display of the toolbars. The sacrifice of visible data to toolbars is further compounded if multiple work areas from multiple applications are displayed simultaneously on the same screen.
Furthermore, the display of multiple toolbars creates visual clutter on the display screen, which may distract a user of the display and which thus makes the use of the underlying computer-related invention less efficient.
Notebook, hand-held, and other smaller computers are becoming increasingly prevalent. Office equipment, manufacturing tools, and other devices are also more often equipped with operating displays. The smaller size of the display screens of such devices generally reduces the screen space available for displaying graphical objects, data, or both simultaneously. This, again, results in the increased potential of obscuring needed data on the display screen.
When this occurs, the user must either remove or move the overlaid toolbar(s) or scroll the data or image so that the appropriate portion is visible in the display region of the display screen. Removal of the obscuring toolbar(s) is generally a multi-step procedure under the current art and is thus relatively cumbersome. Even if removal of the obscuring toolbar is accomplished, such removal is counterproductive as, once the desired text or image has been uncovered by removal of the toolbar, the toolbar needs to be redisplayed in order to access the desired graphical object to be associated with such text or image. Relocation of the obscuring toolbar is likewise generally undesirable because the new location of the toolbar may also mask or impinge upon the data or image which needs to be viewed.
As a result of the foregoing, many users confronted with the need to locate data or image to be associated with a graphical object merely scroll around until the desired data is found. Such scrolling wastes time. Even in those cases where scrolling takes only a few seconds, the cumulative effect in terms of time and inconvenience can be much greater.
By needing to expend time to execute what should be relatively straightforward commands, the user of the graphical interface may become frustrated and the efficiency of operating the application may decline. The need to scroll the screen of data or image is only increased as the area occupied by toolbars increases relative to the area of the display region. As a result, the user must take additional steps to position the information needed at a location in the display region where it will not be masked by the display or selection of the toolbar. Such xe2x80x9cadvanced planningxe2x80x9d merely for the purpose of activating a toolbar is an undesirable waste of time.
As a further alternative, the user can try to remember the data from the display region which is needed to appropriately activate the graphical object, but which will be masked by the display of such graphical object. This, again, at a minimum, is an inconvenience. In fact, since a main purpose in displaying graphical objects is to avoid the need to remember command steps, the need to instead remember the associated data is counterproductive and self-defeating.
Yet another approach has been to use ever-larger device displays, especially in conjunction with computer systems. However, every additional inch of display screen on a conventional CRT device increases the cost not only in terms of dollars but in terms of space, as the size of the device display increases by at least the cube of the additional inch. In addition, more screen space is often associated with more toolbars and other clutter thereon, rather than more space for data. Furthermore, not all devices are amenable to larger display screens, including notebook computers, portable electronic devices, or other space-constrained or power-constrained applications; and not all environments have the physical space for such larger displays.
Whatever the size of the device display, the size of graphical objects and data must be large enough to be perceived and understood. Within these constraints, then, there is a need to optimize the display of graphical objects on the one hand, and the display of data and image on the other hand, in order to improve the ease of operating the graphical user interface. Unfortunately, the attempts of the current art to address this need have themselves been generally cumbersome to implement, and thus have suffered from various drawbacks and disadvantages.
For example, in the case of software applications running on the WINDOWS graphical operating system, users are generally free to select and customize the number and position of graphical objects and toolbars to be displayed. Presumably, users can display the graphical objects to which they need frequent access and hide those graphical objects which they seldom or never need to access.
While such flexibility is helpful in some instances, in many other instances the ability to custom select toolbars does not adequately address the need to optimize the display of graphical objects and the display of associated data. In particular, it is often not easy for a user to predict which toolbars and associated graphical objects ought to be displayed and which ones ought to be hidden for a given task. In addition, the need for different toolbars is likely to vary at different times during the operation of the associated software application.
The steps required to select the toolbars to be displayed can be somewhat involved. The user generally follows a series of branches of a command tree in the application. This means users must interrupt their thought processes or waste time to reconfigure the display of toolbars as needed.
Another approach available to the user of certain WINDOWS-based applications is so-called xe2x80x9cfull screenxe2x80x9d mode. In this mode, as the name suggests, no toolbars or graphical objects are displayed and a display region for data occupies the full dimension of the display screen. A related feature of such xe2x80x9cfull screenxe2x80x9d mode is that certain graphical objects are overlaid on the full screen of data when the cursor is positioned at the extreme perimeter of the display screen. The full screen mode has the disadvantage of displaying too few graphical objects under most circumstances. As such, when the user needs to access a command, the user must either remember the series of keystrokes which substitutes for selection of the graphical object, or must take extra steps to reactivate the tool bar with the appropriate graphical objects thereon. The former approach defeats the purpose of graphical objects by requiring the user to remember keystrokes. The latter approach of redisplaying the desired tool when in full screen mode still generally requires a certain amount of xe2x80x9chuntingxe2x80x9d to find the desired graphical object. Even if the desired toolbar is redisplayed, or even if the user toggles out of full screen mode by hitting xe2x80x9cescape,xe2x80x9d the redisplayed toolbars are overlaid on the display region, and thus potentially mask the very data which needs to be visible in order to appropriately execute the desired commands.
Yet another attempted solution to the above-described needs is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,737 (Tuniman). Toolbars containing sets of graphical objects are xe2x80x9cstackedxe2x80x9d substantially on top of each other, that is, in the xe2x80x9czxe2x80x9d direction on the display, thereby using less screen space in the x and y directions. Each tool bar includes a label icon which remains visible irrespective of the position of such toolbar on the stack. The uppermost toolbar has all of its graphical objects displayed and available for selection by the user, whereas those underneath in the stack only have the label icon visible. To change which of the toolbars is displayed at the top, with all of its associated graphical objects visible, the user selects the label icon corresponding to the toolbar which he or she desires to have at the top of the stack.
While this approach avoids the need to display toolbars adjacent to each other in the x and y directions on the display screen, it suffers from some of the same drawbacks as the prior art solutions. Namely, one or more extra steps are required to have the appropriate toolbar available to interact with the data in the display region. Furthermore, the user must remember which xe2x80x9clabelxe2x80x9d icon is associated with which toolbar, or the user must take the time to query each of the icons to bring the appropriate toolbar to the top of the stack by process of elimination. Again, as with the other approaches of the current art, the display of the toolbar, even though minimized by stacking, nonetheless is overlaid on top of the data in the display region and thus risks obscuring the data or image which needs to be visible in order to accomplish the desired tasks.
Another approach of the prior art is to use toolbars in the form of xe2x80x9cdrop-downxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cpull-downxe2x80x9d menus. In this scenario, familiar to many computer users, multiple graphic objects in the form of command lists are grouped and hidden behind single text labels generally located at the perimeter of the display screen. Selecting one of these text labels at the perimeter of the screen causes the hidden command list generally to extend into the display region or work area of the application, so that further selection can be made from such command list. When the selection is completed, the expanded list retracts, revealing again the work area that was previously masked. In other variations, selecting a graphical object at the perimeter opens a dialogue box or other command boxes, generally appearing at a more central location on the display. In still other versions, the toolbar xe2x80x9cfloatsxe2x80x9d on the display screen in a position xe2x80x9cunanchoredxe2x80x9d to the perimeter.
Each of these approaches, again, has various drawbacks and disadvantages, chief among them being that portions of the display region or work area are masked or obscured by activation of the graphical object, and such masking occurs right at the moment when data in the work area may need to be viewed in order to appropriately execute the command associated with the selected graphical object.
There is, thus, a need for a control program or operating system with an associated graphical user interface for computers, televisions, and any other devices with displays which displays or hides graphical objects more optimally than under current systems.
There is a corresponding need for the graphical user interface to be easy to operate, without introducing cumbersome additional steps into such operation.
It is further necessary to meet the above needs without unnecessarily impinging upon or otherwise masking the data or image in the working area of the display screen.
In accordance with the present invention, a control program or graphical operating system is provided for a screen of data on a display screen of an electronic device, such as an information handling system or computer, as well as a television, office equipment, manufacturing tool, or a consumer electronic device. The control program creates a graphical user interface having a window on the display screen which encompasses a predetermined area bounded by a perimeter. A display region is also defined in the window, and a screen of data is displayed in such display region. The window further includes a control region and a cursor which can be moved into and out of the control region. A tool area can be selectively displayed in the window, and the tool area has at least one graphical object or icon defined in the tool area and operatively associated with the window, the data, or the device. The user interface includes suitable programming for detecting the location of the cursor relative to the window, the control region, and the display region. In response to detection of the cursor in the control region, the control program and associated graphical user interface displays the tool area in the control region. As a result of the display of such tool area, the size of the display region is reduced and now has a second predetermined area less than the first predetermined area. The programming also detects when the cursor is outside of the control region and, in response to such detection, hides the tool area from display in the window. Suitable subroutines are provided for mapping the screen of data at two alternate scales. The first scale maps substantially all of the data screen onto the display region when such region is at its larger size, and the second scale corresponds to the display region at the smaller size which it assumes when graphical objects are being displayed.
When the control program of the present invention is used in conjunction with a television screen, the tool area includes graphical objects representing television channel controls, videotape controls, output display controls, electronic program guide controls, and other controls typically associated with broadcast, video, and digital programming.
When the control program of the present invention is used in conjunction with a computer system, the tool area includes buttons and other controls for managing the window or the data on the screen, such as scroll bars, three dimensional navigational controls, video display controls, and window resizing controls.
In one preferred embodiment, a plurality of graphical objects are arranged into tool bars, and such tool bars, in turn, are arranged around the perimeter of the window to define a frame. The size and location of the control region substantially corresponds to the size and location of the tool bars. As such, when the cursor is located in the frame, the tool bars which define the frame are displayed, whereas when the cursor is located inside or outside of the frame, the tool bars are hidden.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the control program comprises a graphical operating system of a computer system. A window is defined having a first predetermined size and a control region is defined within the window and has a second predetermined size smaller than the window. A display region is further defined in the area of the window outside of the control region. The computer system is structured according to the present invention so that graphical objects are displayed in the control region in response to the cursor being located therein and are hidden from display in response to the cursor being located outside of the control region.
Significantly, the screen of data displayed in the window is rescaled by the computer system by a sufficient amount to fill substantially all of the display region with substantially all of the screen of data whenever the graphical objects are being displayed on the window. Conversely, when the graphical objects are hidden from display on the window, the computer rescales the screen of data to fill substantially all of the window with substantially all of the screen.
In accordance with another aspect of the computer system, the control region is subdivided into a plurality of subregions and subsets of the graphical objects are displayed in corresponding subregions. When the cursor is located in a given subregion, corresponding window management tools are displayed in such subregion. Likewise, when a cursor is not located in the given subregion, the corresponding window management tools are hidden from display.
The subregions, in another version of the present version, can be arranged into a plurality of concentric frames. In this configuration, the graphical objects corresponding to a given one of the concentric frames are displayed when the cursor is located in the control region and within the perimeter of the given frame.